After reading the arstechnica article I also read the source article on metro.co.uk. These quotes are disturbing: First of all, if the execution is sneaky, then so are the intentions. Facebook's...
After reading the arstechnica article I also read the source article on metro.co.uk.
These quotes are disturbing:
"It allows Facebook to conceal ‘a non-human hearable digital sound’ in the audio of a TV ad or other content."
"Although people won’t be able to hear this sound, it contains a ‘machine recognizable’ set of Morse code-style sounds which [causes] your smartphone... to begin recording.
First of all, if the execution is sneaky, then so are the intentions. Facebook's ostensible purpose for this tech is that it lets them "monitor what people watch..." for the sake of ads' relevance.
Even so, being monitored to the point that our background noises are "analysed to generate an ‘ambient audio footprint’" - and then having that information stored along with identifying information about the device owner - is a dangerous level of surveillance.
The ambient-related data even gives information like whether the viewer walked away from the device or not, and it gives an "accurate sense of the size of the audience". From a privacy standpoint, none of that sits well with me.
I 100% fully support this patent if it means only Facebook can do this. So long as I can avoid Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, All these other companies and any other company they buy in the...
I 100% fully support this patent if it means only Facebook can do this.
So long as I can avoid Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, All these other companies and any other company they buy in the future, as well as block all their third party scripts, cookies, etc across all my devices, I'll be fine!
Perhaps it will be sharpened again at the thought of these human-inaudible tracking sounds being implanted in non-ad media, such as movies, DVDs, radio, streaming video/music, etc.
Perhaps it will be sharpened again at the thought of these human-inaudible tracking sounds being implanted in non-ad media, such as movies, DVDs, radio, streaming video/music, etc.
The implications of both this article and its source goes well beyond whether we see ads or not: it's more so about the extremely invasive technology behind this new patent. It's already creepy...
when I remember that I haven't seen an ad
The implications of both this article and its source goes well beyond whether we see ads or not: it's more so about the extremely invasive technology behind this new patent.
It's already creepy that external devices can command our phones to record audio around us without our knowledge. Yet, for me the biggest implication that I rarely see anyone discuss is that even if you're privacy-conscious, none of your individual efforts matter. Like, you can install all the privacy-oriented browsers, adblockers, noscript addons, and VPNs to your heart's content - but since the world around us isn't doing that, we're constantly being identified by others' lack of precautions.
Like, people constantly have their smart devices out while saying stuff to me like, "Hey, can I talk to you privately? PLEASE keep this to yourself..." And then they talk with their phones out while everything is being sucked up. :|
This FB patent involving a unique id will be assigned to every device owner from which it gleans recorded audio. That's gonna be combined with the current abilities of geo location, contact list gathering, et cetera. It makes me wonder if "speaking in private" in modern society actually exists anymore...
After reading the arstechnica article I also read the source article on metro.co.uk.
These quotes are disturbing:
First of all, if the execution is sneaky, then so are the intentions. Facebook's ostensible purpose for this tech is that it lets them "monitor what people watch..." for the sake of ads' relevance.
Even so, being monitored to the point that our background noises are "analysed to generate an ‘ambient audio footprint’" - and then having that information stored along with identifying information about the device owner - is a dangerous level of surveillance.
The ambient-related data even gives information like whether the viewer walked away from the device or not, and it gives an "accurate sense of the size of the audience". From a privacy standpoint, none of that sits well with me.
I 100% fully support this patent if it means only Facebook can do this.
So long as I can avoid Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, All these other companies and any other company they buy in the future, as well as block all their third party scripts, cookies, etc across all my devices, I'll be fine!
Companies can sell licenses to patents. Just because Facebook owns it doesn't mean every other company can't pay Facebook for a license to use it.
The disgust I have at this is somewhat blunted when I remember that I haven't seen an ad, much less one playing into the open air, for years.
Perhaps it will be sharpened again at the thought of these human-inaudible tracking sounds being implanted in non-ad media, such as movies, DVDs, radio, streaming video/music, etc.
The implications of both this article and its source goes well beyond whether we see ads or not: it's more so about the extremely invasive technology behind this new patent.
It's already creepy that external devices can command our phones to record audio around us without our knowledge. Yet, for me the biggest implication that I rarely see anyone discuss is that even if you're privacy-conscious, none of your individual efforts matter. Like, you can install all the privacy-oriented browsers, adblockers, noscript addons, and VPNs to your heart's content - but since the world around us isn't doing that, we're constantly being identified by others' lack of precautions.
Like, people constantly have their smart devices out while saying stuff to me like, "Hey, can I talk to you privately? PLEASE keep this to yourself..." And then they talk with their phones out while everything is being sucked up. :|
This FB patent involving a unique id will be assigned to every device owner from which it gleans recorded audio. That's gonna be combined with the current abilities of geo location, contact list gathering, et cetera. It makes me wonder if "speaking in private" in modern society actually exists anymore...